Lizzy Clark, represented by Cinel Gabran Management, was the first child with Asperger's syndrome to play an Asperger's syndrome role in a major television drama.
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MAPLEWOOD, N.J. — “Circle six, parry four, parry, riposte,” Mickey Zeljkovic chanted, running Bianca Hollywood, 13, through her fencing moves.
Bianca has spina bifida and a pronounced S curve to her spine. But when she wears her mask and lamé, the underjacket that conducts electricity during fencing bouts, she can compete with fencers who can walk, as well as those who cannot.
“It’s a lot of fun, but it takes a lot of time to learn some of the moves,” she said after her session at the New Jersey Fencing Alliance.
The fencing club, in this suburban Essex County township, is developing what are believed to be the only wheelchair fencing classes for young people in the Northeast. Mr. Zeljkovic, who has coached Tariq al Qallaf, an adult world-champion wheelchair fencer, trains a handful of young people in the program, which began in May.
At the club’s headquarters, essentially a 17,500-square-foot room that holds 200 able-bodied competitors some weekends, the wheelchairs are secured to brackets that keep them from moving. Each bracket costs up to $8,000 and positions the duelers an appropriate distance from each other (determined by the fencer with the shorter reach).
The wheelchair-adapted sport traces its roots to veterans returning from World War II, and is only recently attracting followers among young people, with training programs in Atlanta, San Antonio and San Diego, among others. There are now only 27 wheelchair athletes in the United States Fencing Association, so the staff at the club believes there is ample opportunity for young people who start now to reach national-level competitions and even the Paralympic Games.
George Janto, president of the fencing club, hopes to have at least a dozen young fencers in training this year, and is looking for more participants, whose training and competition costs would be covered by the club and its fund-raising efforts. His first six fencers have conditions like spina bifida and cerebral palsy, as well as spinal cord injuries, and were … Continue reading this story on nytimes.com
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Aaron ‘Wheelz” Fotheringham, who was featured on Irked last year, was recently the subject of a fantastic article and TV commercial appearing on the prestigious and award-winning website HowStuffWorks.com.
He was born and raised in Vegas. He’s 17 years young.
He’s been a wheelchair user since the age of three, and a fulltime wheelchair user since the age of eight.
He was born with Spina Bifida. His legs don’t work.
He’s one of a small, but growing group of elite wheelchair skateboarders. Click to continue »
“One of the most central aspects of Circle Stories is that the person sitting for me has control over their imagery, and that the portrait reflect their own honest experience, and as much as possible that I wouldn’t impose my own ideas to the detriment of their own reality.”
